299 – How to Get Attention Online with Lauren Schwartz of The Loft 325

Gift biz unwrapped episode 299,

because the first thing you want to do in a prospecting

ad is just really get that product in their face as

quickly as possible Attention.

Gifters bakers,

crafters, and makers pursuing your dream can be fun.

Whether you have an established business or looking to start one.

Now you are in the right place.

This is give to biz unwrapped,

helping you turn your skill into a flourishing business.

Join us for an episode,

packed full of invaluable guidance,

resources, and the support you need to grow.

Your gift biz.

Here is your host gift biz gal,

Sue moon Heights.

Hi there,

Please join me in a big sigh of relief that last

year is behind us and we can look forward to new

found freedom in the months ahead,

the vaccine is here and I don't know if you're like

me, but I'm really confident that life will look better and

better as the months progress.

There are a lot of things that I definitely will never

take for granted again,

that's for sure.

I still think it's crazy how the change of a calendar

year is such a marker in our lives resolutions and all

of that.

For me,

that final of the new year's champagne toast is when I

enter full swing back into my whole 30 diet.

There's something about starting at that exact time.

That keeps me really committed to stay on track.

Like I don't want to break the momentum or something.

Not that I have to wait another year to get started.

It's completely a mind thing.

I admit it,

but it works for me.

I'm solid in my rules and I go for maybe 20

days or so,

just enough to get the cleansing benefits out of it.

And then psychologically,

I feel kind of reset to continue on with my year

in a really healthy way.

It's a great start anyway.

And speaking of starts,

pull out your calendar and Mark this date January 21st,

2021, only a few weeks away.

That's it just circle that date for something special.

If you don't have a planner or a calendar yet?

No problem.

Grab a,

my inspired daily planner specifically for gifters bakers,

crafters and makers.

So all of us at this link gift biz,

unwrapped.com forward slash get inspired.

And again,

don't forget Mark.

This date,

January 21st,

I'm really excited to get into this first episode of the

new year.

We've done a number of shows in the past on how

to photograph products,

how to handle shadows and all the lighting,

taking photos from your phone,

things like that.

But today we're taking a different approach.

You're going to get answers to questions.

Like at what point do you introduce your product when you're

doing a live video,

should you add words directly onto the image or save them

just for the post text?

Is your product displayed on a stark white background?

Is that better?

Or should you be doing a lifestyle photo?

You don't just want to take beautiful pictures.

You want them to perform for you.

That's what we're talking about today.

And here's how to make that happen Today.

I'd like to introduce you to Lauren Schwartz of the loft

three 25.

Lauren describes her business as a small design studio with a

knack for simplicity.

With over 15 years of experience,

she's served as a creative director and strategist for e-commerce brands.

Her profitable ad campaigns have been used by top brands in

Facebook, Instagram,

Snapchat, and Google Lauren's mission is to help brands grow by

effecting performance throughout the customer's journey.

So that means from prospect acquisition all the way through to

post-purchase experiences.

Lauren, welcome to the gift of his unwrapped podcast.

Thank you,

Sue. So excited to be here.

I Am thrilled that you are here too,

and I'm diving right into what has become a tradition here

on the show.

And that is,

have you described yourself a little bit differently than we already

did in your intro,

but through a motivational candle.

So if you were to tell us what a candle would

look like,

that would really speak to you,

what color would it be and what would be a quote

on that candle?

That's a great question.

The quote that I really think kind of embraces me is

embraced the hustle and the color that I picked would probably

be a coral color.

So the reason why having embraced the hustle as a creative,

you're constantly just trying to work towards something.

And it's taken me about 15 years to finally have my

own business.

And I really had to hustle in order to get where

I've become and representing the coral color,

kind of a red and pink combination.

Red is definitely all about like perseverance and passion and pink

is definitely more of like a harmony and just kind of

approachability, which I think I have with my clients.

So yeah,

that's basically how I would describe my candle.

I love how you combine the colors together and with the

meaning behind those colors.

No, one's done that before.

I really like it.

Awesome. Yeah.

I mean that's creative brain of mine.

I have to figure out what each color represents.

Yeah. That's why this question becomes so interesting.

People will be like,

well, it doesn't have a color it's clear or it's going

to be graduated colors or we don't care about the color.

I care about the scent.

Like it's really interesting.

The variations people will bring,

but no one's done what you've just done.

So I love that.

That's beautiful.

Great. So embracing the hustle and achieving anything always feels like

there's a lot of hustle.

And I think now people are saying,

well, you know,

you shouldn't always have to hustle.

Like you should be able to work smarter and do things

and it shouldn't be as difficult.

But I think what you're talking about in terms of hustle

is just continuing with the passion and finding a way to

make it work for you.

Exactly. Yeah.

I mean,

as a creative,

I think anyone just always knows as a kid,

my mom and dad,

they were always super creative.

My mom was a painter.

My dad was a photographer and moving forward in their life.

When I decided that I wanted to go to art school,

they were kind of like,

well, what exactly are you going to do with art?

And it's like,

there's so many things you could do with art and just

working towards so many different outlets.

I had started in so many different fields,

which is basically all of that creative knowledge has brought me

to where I've gotten today.

And it's just learning creatively,

like what works for you and how you can build your

business on that creativity.

So it is a hustle.

You have to have the passion.

A lot of people have art in their background and they

like doing it.

And eventually they want to do something with it.

But a lot of times people just don't know what to

do with it.

And I think if you find what works for you,

then really you're going to find that passion and that hustle.

Yeah. And you might not land on it right away.

Exactly. I'd love to talk about that with your journey in

a second,

but also for people who are listening,

you just get started.

You just think that,

you know what you're planning to do.

You get started,

you see how it resonates.

Like let's just talk about handmade products because that's the majority

of people here who are listening and then you see how

an audience embraces it or embraces it,

but with a different twist.

So maybe you adjust the product a little bit.

You're not going to necessarily land it right out of the

gate, but you start with something and then you grow and

that's part of the hustle.

I think,

Lauren, what do you say?

It's just that maneuvering and adjusting along.

Yeah. All about trial and error.

You got to figure out what works for you and for

the people that you're selling to.

Right. So what were you thinking when you were in school?

What were you thinking if you were considering what your first

job after you were done with school would be,

where were you going?

When I graduated,

I graduated with a very,

very new kind of steady,

which was multimedia web design.

So with that,

I kind of learned everything.

I learned video editing,

I learned audio,

So that was like forever ago.

And you know,

at the time web design wasn't as prominent as it is

now. And so when I first started,

I thought,

okay, I'll kind of work in this whole web design business

and kind of see where this goes.

And my first job out of college was working for a

company who sold POS systems to restaurants.

So I did a lot of their marketing and web design

for them.

And basically that's kind of where I started.

They took a chance on a college graduate and just let

me kind of do my own thing.

I had no knowledge of POS systems for restaurants,

but through my journey,

I stopped working on the website side of things.

And I actually landed a job at a skate shop doing

their apparel design,

which was totally different from what I went to school for.

I had never learned anything about apparel design.

I had no idea what I was doing,

but they needed someone to do graphic design for their t-shirts

and help build their apparel line.

So then that took me into apparel and accessories for about

six years where I just designed clothing for big companies.

And then eventually I decided I didn't want to do apparel

anymore. And I wanted to go back to digital and got

a job,

working, doing marketing for some other companies,

and eventually decided to go with an agency because I figured

that would be more experience for me learning the e-commerce side

of things and found my passion there.

And that's exactly where I am now.

I am doing my ad creatives for big e-commerce companies and

I love it.

So it kind of went full circle.

Wonderful. So we get a specialist perspective of things that you're

doing for the big guys.

And I'm going to have you bring it back down to

us in terms of what we can be doing or should

be doing with our small businesses as we're growing.

That's going to be perfect.

So e-commerce mostly,

you're talking about advertising,

right? Yes.

Advertising your brand.

Okay. So this'll be really interested.

I'm going to start this from basic as basic can be.

Okay. Lauren,

let's say we have somebody which is going to be a

lot of our listeners who have their business started.

So they're selling online,

I'm going to create a situation and then you'll kind of

coach us through what we should be doing.

And then of course,

you know,

I'm gonna have some questions for you,

but they have a website started.

They have a shopping cart installed.

So they have a way to take orders online.

It might be a Facebook shop might not even be their

own website.

They have a couple of social media channels.

Let's just say Facebook,

Instagram, and that's it.

And they're out.

Maybe they're doing one or two lives if they are,

they're feeling really brave about it,

but that's all they're doing right now.

That's it.

That's all they got for online.

Cause we're just going to only focus online today.

So here's the story.

People are telling them how beautiful their stuff is.

They're getting some comments and engagement on their posts,

but it's converting over into sales.

This is the situation I'm laying in front of you.

Okay. Yes.

The biggest thing for small businesses on e-commerce is that you

just have to get yourself out there.

The Facebook lives are always a great way to start to

get a face to the brand,

showing people the products and really start engaging people with what

you're selling.

Same with Instagram and Instagram stories and Instagram reels.

These are all things that are super effective.

When you're first starting out your business,

you have to insert to engage your clients.

You have to start to engage your consumer.

So showing the product you make,

showing behind the scenes,

showing why people need this product in their life is a

big part of selling online.

You're always trying to answer that why there's so many places

that you can purchase from.

And a lot of times people don't understand why they should

purchase small business.

Why is it so expensive?

There's so many reasons to have this kind of great story.

And I think if you share that with your audience,

it's a huge way to kind of get them engaged into

the product,

which then we'll start to get them down.

That journey,

that customer journey of exploring more of your products and then

purchasing online.

Okay. But what if I don't have an audience because we're

talking about getting out there,

we need to have somebody there to be talking to in

the beginning,

right? Right.

This is actually a good hack.

I guess you could call it of learning how to engage

your audience or to start building your audience.

I should say.

So let's say you're on Instagram and there are other people

out there who are similar to your product.

A lot of times,

what a good thing to do is,

is to look at the people who are commenting on their

Instagram, post your competitors,

and start to engage with those people in their comments.

Start commenting on things that they comment on to really start

building that audience.

So that's one step.

Okay. Let me make sure I understand what you're saying.

Don't forget the second step like me.

Like if I don't keep going,

I'll forget things,

but I want to make sure that we're clear.

So what you would do if you were,

I make,

I spin my own pottery and I make these really cool

coffee mugs.

So I would want to go to other people's accounts who

are, we're saying a competitor,

but I would also say maybe a similar type of an

audience. So it might not just be other potters.

You're not necessarily commenting on their photos.

You're commenting and following people who are commenting on those businesses.

So it's the second layer down.

Yes. It's starting to build your audience because if you are

starting to comment or follow them,

then they'll see that.

And they'll say,

Oh, what's this.

And they'll go to click on it and see what you

have to offer.

And if they already have a similar interest,

then they will start to fall.

Although you,

and then you start to build up your audience slowly.

Okay. I just wanted to make sure that we were talking

about that second layer.

We're not just talking about the other people who have a

similar business as yours,

right? Yes.

Good. Got it.

Okay. Number two,

we kind of talked about this earlier.

You and I,

but really starting to look at Facebook and Instagram paid advertising.

I know that that word paid advertising sounds very scary to

people because they just look at it as I don't want

to spend a lot of money.

They are boosting posts that they have on Facebook and Instagram.

And to be honest,

boosting posts,

it doesn't really do anything for your engagement.

You may get a couple people here and there,

but it's not audience members or clients that you actually want.

You want people that are interested in the things that you're

actually making.

So the great thing about Facebook and Instagram is that you

can create custom audiences and interest segments,

which can then be pulled into a specific demographic and any

sort of advertising that you're trying to do will engage those

people to actually click and purchase from you.

So do you automatically suggest,

and I'd like to talk a little bit more about Facebook

advertising because the majority of people here,

I'm not going to say they don't do it.

I know that some do,

but a lot are super hesitant.

They feel like it's too cumbersome.

They don't understand it.

They're wasting their money because they feel like it hasn't worked

before and maybe not doing it wrong,

doing what they knew to do or thought they should be

doing. Right.

Because Facebook likes to feed you the next action.

And lots of times it's well,

this post is doing so well.

Let's boost it,

right? Yep.

I've been hearing for years that you shouldn't be boosting posts,

but to stick with this audience growth concept first,

let's go to Facebook ads because I think this is really

important. What about not selling your product necessarily right away,

but gathering a community?

Yes. So again,

with Facebook,

there's a lot of layers.

There's a lot of layers to Facebook advertising.

One of the great things about Facebook is that there's all

these different actions that you can take in order to help

engage your audience.

So when you are looking at Facebook ads,

there's lead generation there's website clicks,

there's add to carts,

there's website visitors.

So there's all these different things that you can do when

you're actually building your Facebook advertising.

So obviously I work with a lot of large e-commerce brands.

So for me,

I want people to get that click.

I want people to purchase the product.

So to take it down some levels to just get people,

even interested in your brand,

then I would even start at the website level.

So getting people to actually go to your website,

creating an advertisement or visual representation of what you're selling,

just to get people to your website.

And they're making sure that your website has the information to

get people to want to purchase the product.

Right. And if you're getting people to your website,

with the pixels that you can place with Facebook,

you can start then retargeting people who have actually gone there.

Exactly. And then you start the customer journey and that's what

you like to talk about,

right? Lauren.

Yep. Exactly.

So the customer journey.

Exactly. So like you said,

starting that,

that prospecting level,

which is getting people to your website and then doing retargeting

ads, which is basically getting people to purchase the product.

This goes back to,

and we've all heard this before.

Like you don't meet somebody and then ask them to get

married on the first date.

Right? Exactly.

You need a lot of coaxing for that.

Yeah. I'd say coaxing and glasses of wine or something.

Maybe a couple of bottles.

I don't know.

Anyway, we're not going to go there,

but going back to that person who is making these mugs.

Okay. So the first thing,

if they don't have an audience,

one way to start going is to do some advertising,

to attract other people.

And so you attract them to maybe like your social media

pages or go to your website.

Only one,

not both one or the other,

you start building up a strategy of attracting people and isn't

it true that those types of ads are less expensive than

going directly to a sale?

Yes. I mean,

you could spend as much as you want on Facebook,

you don't have to spend,

like I said,

hundreds of thousands of dollars,

you can spend $20,

you can spend $10.

It kind of depends on what you're looking for.

Granted, the more money you spend,

the wider,

it does open up that pull to pull from.

But when you are starting out,

it's a good place to start to give yourself some sort

of marketing budget.

See what happens when you first start that.

And then maybe the next month you up that budget and

see how much more you can get from upping the budget.

So I think it's trying to come up with some sort

of strategy when you're first starting out in order to get

those people to your website.

Okay. I think we should talk just strategy because there are

so many places where you can learn exactly how to do

Facebook ads,

but let's talk strategy.

What's working give as listeners.

We're not going to get off and you're not going to

have like click here,

click here,

click here.

But you're going to have an overall view.

If you've never thought of Facebook ads before,

where you might be able to take things and pick up

some other good tidbits and such along the way.

So, all right.

So a new person,

so one way that they can do this.

And I think a lot of people will say,

well, you know,

dang, social media doesn't work for me because I have a

page. I post something.

I don't get any engagement.

No, one's coming over to my website.

Social media doesn't work.

Right? Yeah.

And it's unfortunately more true now than it was five,

10 years ago,

organic reach was much greater and now organic reach isn't that

great. But remember you guys,

this is a free platform,

right? Exactly.

20 years ago,

before there even was social media.

If you were in business,

you were taking ads out in the local newspaper,

you were attending local events.

Maybe it was local sidewalk sales in your community.

You were going out to other bigger shows.

You were spending money to be able to attract in an

audience to become known.

Exactly. So the social media sites are very similar to a

website just because you put up a website and you press

live and now it's active and visible doesn't mean people are

ever going to find it.

Right. So I look at these initial ads as visibility,

as attracting people so that they can say,

Oh my gosh,

look at these gorgeous mugs.

And they're all handmade.

And I like the one that's yellow,

because that would be me.

Right. So that's kind of the way to think about it.

And I know this is taking it way down versus what

you're working with Lauren,

but what kind of ad budgets do you think people could

think of for just attracting the visibility?

Because it's not going to equate right away to a sale,

but you're gathering in your audience.

You're gathering your community together.

It's You know what we talked about earlier,

Sue, like it's all about trial and error.

You're going to have to start somewhere in order to figure

out what exactly is going to work for you.

So you could even start with,

let's say $300 a month,

give yourself $300 a month to spend on advertising,

see where that gets you.

If it didn't get you anything.

Okay. Well at least you learn some things along the way.

You could either see that people have gone to your website.

Maybe they didn't go to your website.

Okay. So maybe what I put out there,

isn't engaging enough for people to want to click.

So how do I get myself out there and how do

I make it better in order to get the people to

my website.

And that's where I think a strategy comes into play is

that when you are going out to these craft shows or

you are kind of selling yourself,

like that's what you're doing.

When you're at these craft shows,

people are coming up to you.

They're looking at your product,

they're talking to you,

they're asking you these questions.

Okay. So basically on the social side of things,

you're kind of just taking out that human face to face

and explaining it to everyone visually through social media.

So you're explaining the touch,

the, feel,

the craftsmanship,

the color,

how exactly like this is made.

Like you're literally selling yourself and your product.

Just not face to face.

Like it's just through a social platform.

I think again,

like I said,

it's taking out the trial and error and figuring out what's

working and what's not working.

So you tested some creatives.

Maybe they didn't work this month.

Okay. So what's the next layer that I could do in

order to get people to want to purchase.

Maybe you take it one step further,

go back and see what you did.

Okay. That didn't work.

So what's the next thing that I can do in order

to get people to click and come to my website.

All right.

So let's move this forward.

We've attracted a community because our ads have worked.

And so we've gathered people in.

I am always going to say here,

don't just rely on your social media followers.

You want to get their emails in one way or another,

because that's something that you own.

We talk about this all the time.

So we're not going to go into detail on this,

but let's say right now we're working with the same mug

person and they have couple hundred maybe thousand followers on their

list. Now they want to get people to purchase.

What direction do you have for that motivating people to actually

buy your product?

That's up next,

right after this quick break.

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Okay. Yeah.

So I love that the fact that you brought up your

email list,

because that is something that is super important,

especially when you are starting Facebook ads,

you can actually take your customer list and add it into

your email subscribers and essentially build an interest group off of

your email subscribers.

So seeing the demographics,

seeing the location,

seeing the gender,

there's so much data,

it's crazy.

I mean,

the things that you can see through Facebook analytics is mindblowing.

And it's really interesting to take your email subscriber list,

add that into your interest segments,

because then it'll automatically build an interest segment for you,

which then you can pull from in order to build direct

to consumer ad creatives.

So that's basically where I work with on a day to

day basis.

So the direct to consumer ad creatives that I work with

with my clients are very much like get that purchase,

get that click.

So I think something that's really important when you are starting

out. Once you already have your following and you have your

list and everything is getting those creatives really dialed in to

kind of help you move that needle forward in order to

get those purchases.

So the biggest thing that I tell my clients when I'm

working on their Facebook creatives is that you need to show

the product within the first three seconds.

When you think about Facebook and you think about Instagram,

you're so quick to move past content.

I mean,

we absorb content so quickly that if you aren't seeing a

product that interests you within the first three seconds,

people are going to scroll right past you.

So getting the product visually in front of you within the

first three seconds is the most important thing.

And I know a lot of times people really want to

sell the brand and sell that experience.

I think that's a great,

great thing to do,

but that's what you do in remarketing.

You do that after you've already gotten people to your website

to click into purchase,

because the first thing you want to do in a prospecting

ad is just really get that product in their face as

quickly as possible.

Okay. So you're talking if it's a video.

No, it can even be a still image too.

Well then the product is there right away.

Right? Exactly.

It's funny because video is so big.

Like video is amazing.

I do video content all the time,

but one of the biggest things that I always tell my

clients is never underestimate your product on white.

So meaning just a plain product shot that you basically have

taken from your website and added into an ad creative.

So that's actually something that I do tell people all the

time when I first start my ad creatives is let's just

have a product on white with a really strong headline.

I think that's something that is super valuable.

And again,

it's something that can be consumed within the first three seconds.

So maybe calling out a really strong value prop on the

headline of your product,

it just makes it very clear what it is and what

you're selling.

And it shows the product right away,

Proponent of flat lay of your product on white versus a

lifestyle yes,

I am.

And I say that because I think lifestyle it's kind of

a balance.

Like I said,

I've done so many ad creatives and I think it is

definitely one of those things where again,

you have to have trial and error,

but a lifestyle shot is beautiful and we all love lifestyle

shots. But again,

I don't necessarily think it's the 100% way to go all

the time.

Because a lot of times you visually don't see your product

right away.

Do you know what I mean?

Like if there's a lot going on in your lifestyle shot,

you get distracted by everything else and not the product,

whereas a product on white or a product on a colored

background, you see the product right away.

So it's very clear as to what you're getting.

If that makes sense.

Yeah. That's very interesting.

Cause I've heard the other so much too.

And I guess,

you know,

when you're doing ads,

you can add multiple creatives and then see which ones are

resonating with your audience too.

Exactly. Yes.

So maybe you do both like you to your point,

don't underestimate your product on a white background.

That could be one of the images.

Then you could have a lifestyle image.

You could have another product on white from a different angle

with maybe different wording or whatever.

Then you wait a few days,

see which ones are actually resonating with people that people are

clicking on.

And then those are the ones you keep using.

You drop off the others.

Exactly. And that again is the great thing about Facebook is

that you can have multiple pieces of creative in one,

what we call ad set,

which then you can see what your audience is engaging with.

And then you can just say,

okay, well the lifestyle isn't working,

turn it off or the product and why it isn't working,

turn it off.

Then you start to understand what your audience is looking for.

And then you can build your next set of creatives off

of what's working.

Yeah. You get smarter and smarter as you go exactly.

Of what your audience wants.

Like going back to my mug person,

that's me.

I'm going to say it to me.

What might work for my audience.

If I saw mugs might be totally different than someone else

who sells mugs and what works for their audience.

So you've got to be careful with listening to what other

people say,

doing it yourself,

and then not looking at whether it's working for you.

It might work great.

It might be something to try and test and see and

then adjust.

So that it's a good fit for you.

Exactly. And it's funny too,

because one of the girls I work with,

she's a media buyer and we always talk about the Facebook

robot. Like Facebook understands and knows what's going to work for

you. So don't underestimate it.

Like whatever the data they're pulling from you,

that's, what's working.

So don't try to outsmart the robot basically.

Like it knows what's working for you.

So trust it and know that it's going to get you,

that the information that you need,

Right. Because if you think about it,

I mean,

Facebook wants your ads to be successful too,

because then you'll spend more money with them.

Exactly. The more results they can bring,

the more money they'll spend with you and on and on

and on.

Okay. Couple of questions,

more on creative.

When you talk about,

let's just stick with the product on white,

but then you also have some appealing or interesting or some

type of grabbing verbiage on there as well.

What direction can you give us there?

Yeah. So again,

a lot of times when I'm working on pieces of creative

and I'm pulling that product on white,

the biggest thing I like to test,

like I said,

is headline variation.

So it's the copy.

That's on the creative.

Essentially. What I like to do is I like to pull

at least 10 different thumb stopping headlines.

So you're saying actually in the photo,

not the copy of the ad,

but in the photo,

In the photo.

Right. Okay.

Exactly. So the way that I like to look at it,

especially in my industry,

is that again,

there's the different layers of a Facebook ad.

And I think a lot of time creatives,

I feel like in this industry,

we don't get a lot of recognition.

I want to say like you really don't and it's always,

you know,

you talk about the media buyers,

you talk about the headline copy and the text copy.

But when you're an actual consumer,

what are you looking at first?

You're looking at the creative.

You need to make your creative stand out amongst all the

other noise out there that is being served to them.

Because the thing that initially grabs you is that piece of

creative, not the headline,

not the text copy.

It's the actual creative,

it's the image.

It's the whole image,

which includes a photo and some words.

Exactly. Yes,

because that's what you're looking at when you're scrolling through Facebook

and Instagram is that actual piece of creative.

And once you start to interact with that one piece of

creative, then that's when you look at the text copy,

when you look at the headline and then decide if you

want to click through it.

So Is like guidelines for the creative,

or I don't know,

is it by now and the price,

is it handmade exclusively for you?

Like what direction would you give that?

Are I stopping verbiage on your creation?

Yeah. So,

I mean,

okay, so let's go back to your,

the mugs.

Yeah. Let's say you had this beautiful piece of this beautiful

mug, this great image of a mug.

And for me,

what I think would be a headline or something on the

piece of creative,

the text verbiage on the creative that would be thumb stopping

would possibly be maybe like the coffee cup that makes you

say damn or something.

It sounds so silly,

but it's like,

wait, why does this coffee mug make me say,

damn, and then you want to engage with that because you're

like, well,

I want to know why it going to make me say

that. So it doesn't necessarily have to be like handcrafted,

those type of,

I guess what I'd like to call buzzwords because everything,

when you think about it,

there's so many handcrafted items,

there are so many kind of handmade type products.

And what you're trying to do as a direct to consumer

is your trying to get people to stop,

get people,

to click and get people to purchase.

So when you're creating your ad creatives,

the main thing to do is to get them to click.

If I see that headline,

I want to know exactly why this coffee cup or this

mug makes me think that.

And then going into your website,

that's where you can explain the hand Craston and ship the

story behind the mug.

The reason why it makes you so excited,

that is kind of where this customer journey starts.

So I think that's where you can pull from.

Okay. So your copy kind of leaves you in suspense to

your point,

stopping the scroll.

Okay. So it leaves you in suspense now,

from what you just said,

I'm either going to now look at the copy,

like the written copy or just click automatically in to learn

more. So again,

from your description,

it's not telling all the generic stuff and the features about

your product.

It's somehow making people inquisitive or curious or interested to click

over, to learn more or to read.

Exactly. But it still has to relate in some way with

the image.

It can't be a total disconnect.

Yeah, Exactly.

Yeah. I mean,

you don't want to like throw in something about plants or

something like you still want to talk about the actual mug

and the product that you're talking about,

but the whole purpose is to get people to want to

engage and want to understand why they should purchase this.

And again,

this is all at the prospecting level.

So new people who have never heard of you never seen

you getting them to click onto your site.

And then that's where you can take the next layer and

move on to your remarketing or re-engagement.

And then talk more about the value props of your mug

and your company,

and kind of start to talk about the brand story as

well. Well,

okay. So just to make sure that we're all following along,

I am scrolling down into Facebook.

I see this mug with the headline.

I'm curious,

I've never seen this before.

What is this all about?

I click over to the website.

I see all these mugs.

I learn a little bit.

I'm not really in the market for a mug yet,

but this is really interesting.

Like I'm going to keep this in mind.

Maybe I like the Facebook page,

maybe I don't.

And I click off by doing that.

Facebook now has the knowledge that you actually took an action

and went over to the website.

So now with another,

that then goes only to people who have cooked over to

the website.

Then you can get into more detail because now they already

know you and the mug.

So then all of a sudden,

and this is what people freaked out about early on,

like the whole retargeting.

It's like,

I just clicked over.

And now all of a sudden I'm seeing mugs.

Right. But I think people are kind of used to that

now a little bit.

But yeah.

So then the second message,

isn't just now another free,

for all message out to everybody,

it's only a message to the people who have voiced interest

by clicking into your website and this Lauren it's at this

point, then where you start talking about more of why your

mugs are better than other mugs that you can get or

whatever you're going to say.

Right? Cause it's now the second touch point.

Exactly. So that's where you kind of start talking about,

like you said,

the hand craftsmanship,

the time and hours it takes to put into this why

this is so such a great mug for you to purchase.

That's where you can start to talk more about your brand

story and the value props.

Cause then it just really draws people in.

And then if they didn't get you on the first touch

point, they can then at least get you on the second

touch point.

And then eventually you can be like,

okay, I want to purchase this.

And there's just so many different layers of how you can

get people engaged with your brand.

So from an ad perspective,

we know that people need multiple touch points before they purchase.

Not always,

but the majority of people need to see your messaging several

times. Like yes,

exact seven,

eight times I've even heard as high as 12 times because

they have to start feeling confident of the brand,

all that kind of thing.

What do you do with creative sentence?

So now people have seen that first one,

they showed interest,

they went to the website.

Now they've seen another one,

I guess you might see a couple of times a similar

ad, right.

But then how do you make it so that they're not

every single time seeing the ad.

So it gets tired.

That ad gets tired,

Right? So there's a thing or a data point in Facebook,

which is called frequency.

So the higher,

the frequency in your ads,

meaning that they've seen it multiple times,

eventually people are going to get tired of seeing that high-frequency

ad. So a great way to do kind of testing again,

new pieces of creative.

What I like to do as far as the re-engagement,

the remarketing is really start to go into either what I

like to call UGC or user generated content,

where it's either customers sending you videos and talking about the

product, or you can have your relatives review the product for

you starting to get either some testimonials.

Let's say you started off on Etsy and you have some

great feedback from people there.

You can pull those Etsy reviews and you can pull them

into your ad creatives because those are happy customers.

And they are customers that love the product.

And that's a great way to segment into their remarketing because

a lot of people love reviews.

A lot of people love testimonials and they want to know

that your brand is reputable.

So that's always a great way to kind of pull in

the re-engagement segment and remarketing is to really get those people

to talk about the product and show that you are a

really valuable brand.

Do you turn off the other ads then With the high-frequency?

Yeah, I usually turn those ads off because eventually you're going

to hit a certain point within the frequency where it's just

too much and people just don't engage with your ad creatives

anymore. Then you would turn those ads off and then start

the new ads with the new set of creatives,

which is the testimonials and reviews and user generated content.

Got it.

Okay. And then do you ever,

like, let's say after a year or so,

would you ever go back and restart those again,

thinking that you're pulling in a different audience,

but if you're not doing lookalikes,

if you're doing like interests or something like that yeah,

You could.

I mean,

you could retest those pieces of creatives with new interest segments.

I mean,

you could always test again.

That's the greatest thing about Facebook is that you can always

test things.

You can shut them off for a year.

Maybe you want to see if they could redirect some new

life into your interest groups and basically start to get more

interest there and just try to see if they could work

again. Okay.

All right.

So you've given us some great ideas in terms of creative.

And I love the idea about your copy specifically being something

that just gets more interest so that people will want to

see more on a dive deeper into,

well, stop,

first of all,

and then want to dive deeper in,

could you share what you see as maybe three mistakes that

people are making that we want to make sure to avoid

specifically with creative now?

I think,

yeah. Yeah.

So first step is always think about when you're creating your

ad creatives is to design for mobile first and to think

about sound off.

So a lot of times when you're working on your ad

creatives, people are looking on their phone.

So your text needs to be big enough in order for

people to see it.

And then you have to think of your creative as not

having sound on because a lot of times people don't have

the sound and as they're scrolling through.

So if you make this really great piece of creative and

it only focuses on the sound aspect,

most of the time,

people won't understand it because they can't hear what's actually going

on. So I guess that's two steps is designed for mobile

first and then designed for sound off.

And then the third one would be your user generated content.

Always make sure you have captions.

If you're having someone who is talking about your product and

they're shooting it from their iPhone,

let's say they're holding it in their hand and they're talking

about your product and they're talking and they're telling you all

these amazing things,

but there's no of what they're actually saying.

Then people are just going to see this mug in a

hand and not understand what exactly is going on.

Because again,

it goes back to creating a sound off and adding those

captions in so many brands I see will post these advertisements

and they have these people talking and you're looking at it

and you're like,

I don't know what this ad is.

And then once you click on it,

you hear sound.

And you're like,

Oh, they're talking about this amazing product,

but how would I know that because there's no captions and

I have no idea what this person is saying.

So I think those are kind of the three things that

I see a lot,

actually, even with really large brands there,

people still don't do it that I think actually hurts their

creative, because if they don't know what people are talking about,

then they're not going to want to click on it.

Yeah. I'm thinking too,

that you lose your opportunity.

You may even get in front of people's eyes,

but you lose the opportunity because people might be sitting in

a doctor's office or are in line at a grocery store,

six feet apart,

still probably,

and scrolling their phone,

but they can't have the sound on because whatever environment they're

in that would be rude to have the sound on,

or they wouldn't be able to hear it.

So people will maybe see the ad,

have no idea what it means or enough information to take

another action.

Those are really,

really good points.

So this has been fabulous,

Lauren, I really appreciate it.

I know we've talked about Facebook ad strategy in terms of

imagery and ads and spending money and not boosting and all

of that.

But the imagery specifically,

we haven't really dived into before.

So this was really,

really helpful.

And I think it's gonna make a lot of people think

the next time they start putting together images and I'd even

say like,

you can,

whether this is an ad or not,

this is something that you should be doing exactly.

I mean,

if you're lucky enough and you're getting organic reach.

Yay. Yeah.

But so anytime that you're putting up posts,

then keep these points in mind.

I think they're really beneficial.

Yeah. I agree.

Share with me a little bit where personally,

you see yourself going in the future,

what's in your heart in terms of your evolution.

Yeah, so actually creative,

I think is so important and I really want people to

engage with that more.

So a lot of the clients,

like I said,

that I work with,

we really,

really strategize on their creative aspect and not so much on

the media buying and that side of things.

It's mostly focused on the creative,

because again,

I think creative is key.

There are two different areas of expertise,

really? Oh,

exactly. A hundred percent thinking in kind of that e-commerce direct

to consumer space.

You do have to have knowledge of how people purchase and

how the post-purchase acquisition funnel works.

And so I think bringing that to my clients is something

that they find very valuable as they're out their Facebook advertising,

but where I'd like to see myself go,

I'd love to continue to keep working with my clients and

really just growing my business.

Like I said,

in my sort of paid advertising space,

creative is just now finally getting recognized as being a valuable

part of the industry.

And I think it's only going to go up from here

with so many people having to go online.

They're really starting to have to think about new strategies and

creative strategies on how to get people to click and how

to purchase their products.

So my journey is that I really love to just keep

expanding and really just give people that experience creatively of how

they can grow their brand and just get to work with

e-commerce companies and just really help them grow.

I mean,

that's my passion is that even working with large companies,

I'm working with smaller companies as well.

Like I just really want to help people grow their business

and really get them out there.

That's basically my goal.

Wonderful. And if you were to direct people to go to

one place online where they can interact with you,

where would you send them?

Yeah. So it's the loft three,

two, five.com.

It shows my creatives that I've done for some different brands.

That'd be the main place to go if they want to

get in contact with me.

All right.

Perfect. Thank you so much.

I really appreciate you being here,

sharing this information.

Now I'm going to be watching for what people are doing

with their imagery.

Like seriously today when I get back on my phone and

I'm starting to scroll,

I'm gonna be like,

Nope, born missaid.

That was a mistake and this is good.

And that's not an next time on and on.

Yeah. I think you'll definitely start to look at things a

little bit differently and be like,

Oh, that's kind of interesting.

Or, Oh no,

I didn't engage with that one.

So 0.2

is what do you see yourself engaging with?

And then go back and look at what it was in

that image that prompted you to take an action,

because those could be things that you could copy.

And I don't mean copy,

like exactly,

but just the strategy that you could use for yourself.

Well, thanks again,

Lauren. I so appreciate having you on the show.

Yeah. Thank you so much.

So My biggest takeaway from today's show is about the wording

to put on my photos,

not to give all the details necessarily about the product,

but to tease and prompt the viewer,

to click and learn more.

If you've been around here for a while,

you know,

I'm a great tease.

So this is really easy for me.

Let me try it out again.

Now, remember Mark your calendar for January 21st details coming soon.

Next week,

we get to take what we learned here today and dive

deeper into Facebook strategy from a handmade maker.

Who's figured out the code.

No seriously.

His Facebook page has 102,000

followers and counting.

You'll hear how he it and how you can too.

Thanks so much for spending time with me today.

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So it's a great way to pay it forward.

And now today,

and I'll see you again next week on the gift biz

on wrapped Podcast.

I want to make sure you're familiar with my free Facebook

group called gift is breeze.

It's a place where we all gather and our community to

support each other.

Got a really fun post in there.

That's my favorite of the week.

I have to say where I invite all of you to

share what you're doing to show pictures of your product,

to show what you're working on for the week to get

reaction from other people and just for fun,

because we all get to see the wonderful products that everybody

in the community is making my favorite post every single week,

without doubt.

Wait, what,

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